>>Speaker: Tell your (00:04.0). And say your name, say "My name is so and so and I work for so and so, and this is what my literacy story is about."
>>Brian: Excellent, my name is Brian Gogan, I am a 7 year PHD student at Virgina Tech right now. And I've got two literacy stories, the first one is about my basically, basically my part, one of the earliest memories that I've remembered, that's been remembered for me. My mom is currently legally blind, so she has been legally blind since she was 25, and she's grown up, that means different things to different people. What it means to me is that she's an incredibly capable person who does extraordinary things, things that people do daily that they don't think twice about. And one of the things, I'm thinking of the literacy narrative that might be perhaps a little bit unique then, is that she would, she had, she has, a restricted license, but that would mean that she is able to drive during daylight, stay away from highways whatnot. But one of a remarkable, story with her, is her ability to adapt her literacy. So for instance when I was younger child sitting in the car seat, she would ask me what color the light was, red or green, and I knew that much as a little kid, and that was the way that we worked together and were able to drive. And my second literacy story is about my grandfather currently he has dementia and probably cannot put together a sentence. However, when he was in World War II in the service, he wrote a letter almost daily to his parents, and telling about his days, about his service, about what he was doing, where he was going, and something that I have found particularly enlightening I guess recently. When somebody is, the ability to communicate is taken away from them, through health reasons, it's a way that he can I think speak back to his condition right now by having those stories documented. It's in a book that's circulated within our family and I'm able to read those now. And it's a way that he can show an impressive ability to communicate with his parents. And in a sense he's writing posterity as well. Communicating with future generations, his son and my sons. Those are my stories.
>>Speaker: You did wonderful Brian, thank you!